Sustainability Technology & The Evolution of Smart Cities

Smart Parking & Superblocks in Barcelona

1. Sustainability Problem: 40% of traffic in city centers is caused by drivers looking for parking spaces. This gridlocked inertia is a universal frustration creating increased congestion, noise and pollution in areas where citizens live and work. Barcelona, Spain had been facing this issue for a long time.

Barcelona has been a pioneer in implementing IoT and smart technologies to improve civic service. As a part of it, they have identified traffic congestion as one of the areas to be worked on.

Using smart sensors, display boards and apps, drivers can locate nearest empty parking spot, park and get a parking receipt over the app.

Barcelona has also also come up with a design solution, to identify a group of city blocks (called superblocks) and allows traffic only in its perimeter, thereby reducing traffic congestion in the inner crossroads of the superblocks. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZORzsubQA_M)